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Sunday, 17 January 2016

The Moth Gatherer - "The Earth Is The Sky" (Album Review)

By: Chris Tedor

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 27/11/2015

Label: Agonia Records

The excellent songwriting continues on
every track and The Moth Gatherer leaves just the perfect amount of space
between the heavy and quieter parts and transitions in places that sound fresh
and exciting. The way the last song on the album, “In Awe Before The Rapture,”
ends even echoes Cult of Luna's “Vertikal” with an impressive melodic ambiance
that few muster correctly but all fans of the genre love. “The Earth is the Sky” was criminally
overlooked on everybody's year end list, it’s never too late to check it out
because it’s not just a good album, its fucking great.

“The Earth is the Sky” CD//DD//LP track
listing:

1). Pale Expressions

2). Attacus Atlas

3). Probing the Descent of Man

4). Dyatlov Pass

5). The Black Antlers

6). In Awe Before The Rapture

The Moth Gatherer is:

Victor
Wegeborn | Vocals, Guitar, Programming

Alex
Stjernfeldt | Vocals. Bass

Svante
Karlsson | Drums

The Review:

It's
always awesome to get a review for something you already bought and loved. This
was on my personal list of best albums for 2015 at number two behind Elder's seminal “Lore”
and I'm more than happy to share my thoughts on it. The Moth Gatherer's
second full-length “The Earth is the
Sky” is a deep record that will immerse you in waves of spiralling
consciousness if you let it. To begin, yes it is post-metal, but it is very,
very different than almost every post-metal album I've heard. The Moth Gatherer uses some very interesting guitar effects
that give the tones a very unique feel. In addition, the electronic programming
is very good and very tasteful as can be seen almost immediately upon the album
starting. The vocals that kick in shortly after the album start has distorted
hardcore singing and some clean singing that sounds eerily like someone from Red Fang. You can tell almost immediately that THIS album
is different than anything else you've heard. My favorite part of the album is
the last half of the second track “Attacus
Atlas” which actually has a part just past the seven minute mark which
echoes the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack with some great synth programming. The best
overall song of the album is the instrumental third track “Probing the Descent of Man” which has one of the best beginnings
of anything I've ever heard in music. The way the electronics swirl in the
background and the drums cut in is absolutely perfect. The coldness of the
digital sound builds up into a construct that screams emotion, conjuring up
images in your mind of ruined cities spanning the horizon.

The
excellent songwriting continues on every track and The Moth Gatherer
leaves just the perfect amount of space between the heavy and quieter parts and
transitions in places that sound fresh and exciting. The way the last song on
the album, “In Awe Before The Rapture,” ends
even echoes Cult of Luna's“Vertikal” with an impressive melodic ambiance that few muster
correctly but all fans of the genre love. The recording and mix on the album is
great and features knob twiddling by Karl Daniel Liden known for his work
drumming for Dozer and Greenleaf.
The guitars sound huge and the layering of different tones, particularly on the
quieter melodic sections is fantastic. All the voices can clearly be heard and
sound huge. I'd also strongly recommend that you check out their first release “A Bright Celestial Light” which is
also fantastic and worth checking out. “The
Earth is the Sky” was criminally overlooked on everybody's year end list, it’s
never too late to check it out because it’s not just a good album, its fucking
great.

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